While a report released Monday by the World Health Organization reveals that obesity could become the norm on the old continent, Americans can now congratulate themselves on having reduced the obesity rate for 2-5 year olds by 43% since 2003, from 14 to 8%. First Lady Michelle Obama, very committed to the fight against obesity, welcomed the results and said in a statement that she was “delighted with the progress made over the past few years in bringing down obesity rates among the world’s largest. young Americans “. “With the participation of children, parents and communities in the Let’s Move! Movement over the past four years, healthier habits are starting to become the norm.” Moreover, to go even further, the White House must reveal on Thursday a new labeling indicating the nutritional value of food products in order to simply provide as much information as possible to consumers.
These results were published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama), a leading medical journal. It confirms the results of a report published last August by the US federal authorities.
Several factors can explain this decrease: the increase in information campaigns but also the nutritional improvement of the meals served in nurseries and the practice of physical activities from an early age.
This drop is all the more important since it has been proven that overweight in early childhood increases the risk of being obese in adulthood fivefold.
But vigilance must of course be maintained because, at the overall level of the American population, there has been no significant drop in the number of obese people.
Remember that obesity greatly increases the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. A Canadian study also recently showed thatit was not possible to be obese and healthy, even if no metabolic problem has yet occurred and increases the risk of early death by 24%.
The best way to limit weight gain is to exercise regularly and adopt a varied and balanced diet.
